HISTOLOGICAL PATTERN OF LIVER DISEASES IN JOS UNIVERSITY TEACHING HOSPITAL, JOS: A TEN YEAR RETROSPECTIVE STUDY (2000-2009)

Abstract

Background: Liver disease is among the common causes of hospital visitation and
admission in most of tropical Africa. Among the liver diseases, viral hepatitis and
other stigmata of chronic liver disease are the commonest reasons for admission. In
most medical wards, patients with liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma
constitute a significant proportion of admissions.
Objective of this study: This study was undertaken to document the histological
appearances of diseases in liver biopsies in Jos.
Methods: All documented cases of liver biopsies over a period of ten years were
reviewed.
Results: There were a total of 374 histologically diagnosed liver biopsy specimens
during the ten-year period of review (2000-2009). Liver diseases were found to be
more common in males than in females with male female ratio of 1.9:1. Most cases
occurred within the 31-40 years age bracket. Chronic viral hepatitis was the most
common diagnosis (61%) followed by hepatocellular carcinoma (20.3%) and
cirrhosis (7.8%). Chronic viral hepatitis and cirrhosis occurred most frequently in the
fourth decade while hepatocellular carcinoma peaked a decade later. More than half
of the cases of chronic hepatitis (51.1%) had Knodell scores between the range of
5-8 points while in cirrhosis more than half (51.7%) scored 13-18 points. Analysis of
variance (ANOVA) of these scores in both conditions failed to demonstrate any
statistically significant difference between males and females (P-value = 0.63).
There was poor correlation between age and Knodell scores (Pearson’s r = 0.0067).

The patterns of hepatocellular carcinoma observed included trabecular (71.1%),
acinar/pseudoglandular (13.2%), clear cell (6.6%) and fibrolamellar (1.3%).
Conclusion: This study has demonstrated that there is a high frequency of
occurrence of histologically diagnosed chronic hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma
in Jos.
Keywords: liver, hepatitis, Knodell score, hepatocellular carcinoma.

HISTOLOGICAL PATTERN OF LIVER DISEASES IN JOS UNIVERSITY TEACHING HOSPITAL, JOS: A TEN YEAR RETROSPECTIVE STUDY (2000-2009)